Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T02:32:37.691Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The clinical EEG and personality in mentally abnormal offenders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

R. C. Howard
R. C. Howard*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Broadmoor Hospital, Crowthorne, Berks
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr R. C. Howard, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Broadmoor Hospital, Crowthorne, Berks RG11 7EG.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

A retrospective survey was undertaken of the clinical EEG in a series of consecutive admissions to Broadmoor Special Hospital (N = 265). Following reporting of the records by visual inspection, the EEGs were classified according to 4 descriptive categories: predominantly monorhythmic; low voltage fast, ‘choppy’ dysrhythmic with excess theta; and dysrhythmic with paroxysmal features. The last 3 categories constituted EEG patterns with atypical or anomalous features. The EEGs of patients with high scores on Welsh's MMPI Anxiety scale (‘withdrawers’) were compared with those of patients with low scores (‘approachers’). Lateralization of paroxysmal EEG features was studied with reference to MMPI personality measures (Blackburn's Impulsivity and Sociability and Welsh's Anxiety), legal diagnosis, type of offence, and relationship to victim. The EEGs were studied in a further sample of 29 admissions who had been assessed, using Hare's Research Scale for the Assessment of Psychopathy (Hare, 1980). While the overall incidence of atypical EEG features reported in the present study (around 60% of cases) was comparable with that reported previously for offender populations, they occurred significantly more frequently in ‘withdrawers’ than in ‘approachers’. This suggests that the high frequency of atypical EEG features in abnormal offenders may be due to the preponderance of ‘withdrawers’ in this population. Patients who had committed violent offences against strangers, as opposed to people known to them, tended to have bilateral paroxysmal features in their EEG. High scores on Hare's Psychopathy scale were significantly associated with prominent Posterior Temporal Slow Activity. The study offers some prospect that the combined use of EEG and personality assessments may be of potential value in the assessment of dangerousness.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , August 1984 , pp. 569 - 580
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Black, D. A. & Spinks, P. (1984). Predicting subsequent behaviour in previously dangerous mentally disordered offenders. In Prediction Problems in Criminology (ed. Farrington, D. and Tarling, R.). State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Blackburn, R. (1970). Personality Types Among Abnormal Homicides. Special Hospitals Research Report, No. 1. Special Hospitals Research Unit: London.Google Scholar
Blackburn, R. (1974). Personality and the Classification of Psychopathic Disorders. Special Hospitals Research Report, No. 10. Special Hospitals Research Unit: London.Google Scholar
Blackburn, R. (1979). Cortical and autonomic arousal in primary and secondary psychopaths. Psychophysiology 16, 143–150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blackburn, R. (1980). Personality and the criminal psychopath: a logical analysis and some empirical data. In Lo Psicopatico Delinquente, Faculty of Jurisprudence: University of Messina.Google Scholar
Cleckley, H. (1982). The Mask of Sanity. C. V., Mosby: St Louis.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1967). The Biological Basis of Personality. C. C., Thomas: Springfield, Ill.Google Scholar
Fenton, G. W., Tennent, T. G., Fenwick, P. B. C. & Rattray, N. (1974). A study of posterior temporal slow activity in Special Hospital patients. Psychological Medicine 4, 181–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gale, A. (1975). Can EEG studies make a contribution to the experimental investigation of psychopathy?Paper presented at the Advanced Study Institute on Psychopathic Behaviour, Les Arcs, Bourg St Maurice,France,September.Google Scholar
Gray, J. A. (1970). The psychophysiological basis of introversion–extraversion. Behaviour Research and Therapy 8, 249–266.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hare, R. D. (1970). Psychopathy: Theory and Research. John Wiley & Sons: New York.Google Scholar
Hare, R. D. (1980). A research scale for the assessment of psychopathy in criminal populations. Personality and Individual Differences 1, 111–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, R. D. & Frazelle, J. L. (1980). Some preliminary notes on the use of a research scale for the assessment of psychopathy in criminal populations. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Harris, R. (1978). Relationship between EEG abnormality and aggressive and anti-social behaviour: a critical appraisal. In Aggression and Anti-social Behaviour in Childhood and Adolescence (ed. Hersov, A.), pp. 13–27. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry Supplement No. 1. Pergamon: Oxford.Google Scholar
Hill, D. (1952). EEG in episodic psychotic and psychopathic behaviour. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 4, 419–442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howard, R. C., Fenton, G. W. & Fenwick, P. B. C. (1982). Event-Related Brain Potentials in Personality and Psychopathology: A Pavlovian Approach. Research Studies Press John Wiley & Sons: New York.Google Scholar
Howard, R. C., Bailey, R. & Newman, A. (1984). A preliminary study of Hare's Research Scale for the Assessment of Psychopathy in mentally abnormal offenders. Submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Leites, N. S. (1972). Problems of the inter-relationship between typological features and age. In Biological Bases of Individual Behaviour (ed. Neblitsyn, V. and Gray, J. A.), pp. 74–85. Academic Press: London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matousek, M. & Peterson, I. (1983). A method for assessing alertness fluctuations from EEG spectra. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 55, 108–113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quay, H. C. (1965). Psychopathic personality as pathological stimulation seeking. American Journal of Psychiatry 122, 180–183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schalling, D. (1978). Psychopathy-related personality variables and the psychophysiology of socialisation. In Psychopathic Behaviour: Approaches to Research (ed. Hare, R. D. and Schalling, D.), pp. 85–106. John Wiley & Sons: New York.Google Scholar
Syndulko, K. (1978). Electrocortical investigations of sociopathy. In Psychopathic Behaviour. Approaches to Research (ed. Hare, R. D. and Schalling, D.), pp. 145–156. John Wiley & Sons: New York.Google Scholar
Syndulko, K., Parker, D. A., Jens, R., Maltzman, I. & Ziskind, E. (1975). Psychophysiology of sociopathy: electocortical measures. Biological Psychology 3, 185–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veldhuizen, R., Binnie, C. D. & Beintema, D. J. (1983). The effect of sleep deprivation on the EEG in epilepsy. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 55, 505–512.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Volavka, J. & Matousek, M. (1969). The relation of pre-and perinatal pathology to the adult EEG (Abstract). Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 27, 667.Google Scholar
Welsh, G. S. (1956). Factor dimensions A and R. In Basic Readings on the MMPI in Psychology and Medicine (ed. Welsh, G. S. and Dahlstrom, W. G.). University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Williams, D. (1969). Neural factors related to habitual aggression. Brain 92, 503–520.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed